Backbencher

This lecture, entitled Austalia: A Short History of Mentalities, was quite unique because we got to hear it from an authentic Australian. Dr. Troy Whitford is a Professor in Wagga Wagga, New South Whales and he was nice enough to get up at 5 in the morning to give us this brief lecture on Australian history. The overview of his lecture consisted of: Perception of Australian mentality, Australian history about middle class values and ideas, materialism and self-reliance, and The development of the values that came from engineering.
Dr. Troy did a really good job of putting in perspective what a convict colony would be like. He dicussed what the values were of those settlers as well as what boundaries were set up by Britain. He discussed what is known as the "Eureka Stockade" which was a rebellion against taxation by the self-employed. This was a working man's revolution which in my opinion, was very similar to the American Revolution whose slogan was "No Taxation Without Representation".
He then went on to discuss Australia's Federation which is defined as the uniting of colonies to form a single nation: done for economic rather than ideologic reasons. This marked OZ's independence from Britain and its birth as a new country. While discussing these points Dr. Whitford made it clear that Australians were intent on rejecting a big government and insisted that the focus be on the power of individual states.
He also spoke of how in the 1920's Australians were concerned with the growth of capitalism and the creation of wealth. The discussion of the Post WWII era consisted of the importance of family and home ownership.
In a brief part of the lecture he talked about "History Wars" which is something we've often talked about in class. Apparently in Australia, there are two sides in which historians are taking when it comes to teaching others. Some take the side of historians like Manning Clark and others take the side of historians such as Windshuttle (I think that's how you spell it?).
Ultimately I thought it was really good for the class to hear about OZ's history from a true Australian's point of view. He gave us perspective that I would have never imagined on my own. Actually my favorite part of the lecture was when Dr. Whitmore gave his opinion on American football. I guess I had never thought to view our sports from a foreigner's perspective, but he definitely made me realize that American football is a bit of a goofy sport. There was one question that I was dying to ask but was too embarassed to and that was "How is the weather down under?" :) .